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NT Bureau
Chennai, Oct 14:

        How to identify waste and eliminate them in plant and equipment operations for on-time delivery and price reduction was the focus point at the recently held conference on lean manufacturing organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

        In his address, C Narasimhan, advisor, Sundaram Clayton Ltd, said waste in plant operations in the form of bad quality, time loss due to change over, down time and idle capacity, among others, was estimated to account for 95 per cent of the traditional process in manufacturing.

        'Elimination of waste is the meeting point of customers and investors for only through waste reduction that an organisation can possibly bring down the cost of production and improve bottom line,' he said. Any

        management strategy must focus on eliminating waste and the lean techniques should be taken beyond the narrow confines of manufacturing, he said. 'It should create lean enterprise, not just lean manufacturing set ups,' Narasimhan said.

        'Waste is always hidden and so its elimination is a big challenge. It is there in poor quality, unorganised work and idle capacity, among others. The development of creative labour and involvement of employees can help organisations identify and eliminate waste,' he added.

        The whole aim of quality practices such as TQM, TPM and lean policies was the sustainability of an organisation's profitability, said Gopal Srinivasan, chairman, CII - Tamilnadu State Council, and director, TVS-Electronics.

        Eliminating the footprint of waste have to start from a clear vision and focus on skill development, he said. In India, every year 12.5 million people joined the workforce, out of which only 3.5 million received formal education beyond schooling. About 10 per cent of the 3.5 million find employment in IT and ITeS industries and the rest should necessarily be absorbed by other sectors. 'Though India has produced more number of jobs than China in the last five years, as per the statistics of International Labour Organisation, over 90 per cent of them are created in informal sectors where the opportunity for skill development is less,' Srinivasan explained. He urged the large corporations to take up initiatives in skill development for vendors in SME firms which provided jobs to over 80 per cent of the workforce.

        The aim of lean manufacturing was to make an organisation flow without stagnation of inventory, machine and people, said N Ravichandran, president, Lucas TVS Ltd. 'Lean is not a technique, product or process but it is a mind game,' he said and added the goal was to achieve cost reduction and improving quality in a consistent manner.

        Effecting change in the mindset of senior and middle-level management was the key for transformation and achieving excellence in manufacturing, averred T R Parasuraman, general manager, Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts Ltd. 'Rejection is given due importance for a fine analysis of rejection would give valuable insights into the bettering process,' he said.

        Earlier in his welcome address, Jayakumar Ramdass, chairman, Taskforce on Manufacturing and Quality at CII-Tamilnadu, said competitiveness had to face the impact of external factors like oil price fluctuation. Hence, innovation in manufacturing was the need of the hour to improve competitiveness. As export was the key to growth, industry should adopt lean practices to achieve zero defects and enhance their export performance, he said.